Review of Invisible, Inc. – A Demanding and Inventive Mix of Strategy and Stealth

The success of Don't Starve apparently helped the Canadian studio find the perfect formula for their games – they have to be difficult, characterized by a unique graphic style, and a source of great satisfaction resulting from even the tiniest victory.

In Invisible, Inc., Klei Entertainment merged the elements of stealth, puzzle game, turn-based strategy and roguelike, all played from an isometric view accompanied by a spy theme. And although I approached this specific mixture cautiously, the studio managed to deliver once again. This is one of the most solid independent productions of recent months, even if some elements give the impression of being glued together in a rush. Take the story for example: it's enough for a several-hour campaign (which, however, can be repeated almost indefinitely), and includes barely outlined characters and background. It's the year 2074 and the world is ruled by omnipotent corporations. Fighting them is the titular spy agency, which has messed with the corporations for many years, stealing their valuable data and inventions. It therefore comes as no surprise that the team ultimately became the target of an attack which was only survived by several of its members: Gladstone, who manages the entire network, and Incognita, an artificial intelligence of impressive capabilities. The problem is that the latter can only be active for 72 hours without access to a power source – during this period the player must complete quests at various locations scattered across the world, and gain experience, credits and equipment to prepare properly for the final showdown. This plot, which is not overly complicated (even despite really well-written and performed dialogues), is merely the background for the challenges provided by the gameplay itself.

Further into the game, in addition to the usual guards we're also hunted by drones and robots.

One has to give it to the developers – they are honest from the very beginning. When we turn on the tutorial, we're given a fair warning that we'll die so many times that the perpetual ordeal of Kenny from South Park will simply fade in comparison with what we have to go through. Seasoned strategists who carefully analyze every move could perhaps avoid this experience, but the rest is in for a painful lesson in humility. Invisible, Inc. throws us into the headquarters of corporations from which we must steal information, credits and biomechanical implants or save hostages. Each of the levels, even early into the game, is full of objects that can be hacked through Incognita, but that costs power points, and these are always scarce. Without hacking, though, you won’t get far, as there's no shortage of dangers lurking in the visited locations. We're up against ubiquitous cameras, guards patrolling the corridors and programs that trigger an alarm or deactivate the artificial intelligence for a while even after we’ve successfully removed their safety measures; there's also the steadily increasing alarm level. The player must therefore move as quickly as possible, all the while controlling the number of action points (which we spend for almost every action), and taking into account the danger the opponents pose – it's impossible to win in a direct fight with heavily armed guards. Equal opportunities are a rare treat here, and there's no point thinking about a competitive advantage.

As agents of a spy organization, we'll set foot in corporations scattered throughout the world.

And although the game pits us against the superior forces of the enemy, especially in its later stages, for every death and failure we only have ourselves to blame. In Invisible, Inc. choices really count, because almost all actions have side effects. If we stun a guard, we gain a few turns of peace, but it is worth remembering that when he finally wakes up, he'll come looking for us until he finds us, this time without sticking to his usual patrol route. In turn, hacking a combat drone will make it possible to go right under the nose of a heavily armed machine without any worries, but if one of the guards stumbles upon it by chance, the alarm will go up a few levels. Invisible, Inc. is like a strict teacher who will keep on making us fail a test until we finally learn something. And when we finally crack the formula of the gameplay and feel at home in the corridors of the corporation, the game will be quick to give us another lesson. When I managed to properly run a hostage rescue mission for the first time, I became confident enough that I decided to take a peek at one of the safes and rob it. The effect was catastrophic: the room I was eying soon became surrounded by guards, and I returned to the base alone, losing an agent and the hostage.

In the world of Invisible, Inc., red means trouble. A lot of trouble.

The final version of Invisible, Inc., has just been published, but those who couldn't wait to save their agency had a chance to try out the game in Steam Early Access. The new production from Klei Entertainment has been available on this platform since August 19 last year, and was developed thanks to the players’ comments. In the case of Invisible, Inc. Early Access apparently passed the test, because another project of the studio – Don't Starve Together – has also been featured there since January 15.

The high level of difficulty, however, serves a higher purpose – giving satisfaction. True, we have to make an effort before anything comes out perfectly, but the moment when we manage to slip the guards without the slightest problem after robbing a modern laboratory of biomechanical implants makes us feel as if we were better spies than James Bond himself. Not without effect is also the continuous tension: when alarms are triggered and the guards are close to our agent, evading them for one more turn is no small achievement. Satisfaction is not even dimmed by the fact that many elements we have to accept as they are: guards at corporations are apparently deaf, as they seem to be unable to hear an agent running just behind their backs. They don't seem too bright either – when entering a room where they've just noticed a silhouette of a moving player they don't even raise their weapons, making themselves a perfect target.

The locations may not overwhelm us with their size, but to get to know each of them we'll need at least two dozen turns.

This, unfortunately, is not the only defect of Invisible, Inc. Klei Entertainment has created a game with a large number of elements that need our attention while providing an extremely short and not very comprehensive tutorial. As a result, the production is not very friendly to beginners, and we have to discover a lot of things on our own to understand how all the mechanisms work. By no means am I trying to accuse the developers at this point of not taking the player by the hand, as this would make the game lose its greatest strengths. Still, they could have at least explained how various traps work. If they had, I probably wouldn't have wasted several action points trying to bypass the sound sensor... that is only activated by sounds louder than normal steps. In order to discover everything in Invisible, Inc., we have to use the first few missions.

Credits are the basis of survival – we use them to buy new skills and equipment.

In addition to the classic campaign, Invisible, Inc. also offers the Endless mode in which Incognita doesn't deactivate after 72 hours and operates on end instead, allowing for a fun trip through the corporate headquarters and stealing anything there is to steal. It's a great opportunity to unlock all characters, biomechanical implants or skills in one sitting... Unless of course we die. The opponent is hardly idle and with each action of our agency it's consistently increasing the level of security in their establishments.

Luckily, this process is not very time-consuming as compared with how much fun the game can provide. If you're not discouraged at the beginning, you'll soon find that the Canadians have created a game that can be replayed endlessly. True, the campaign takes just a few hours, but it’s irrelevant since every time the outcome is totally different. The locations are generated procedurally, which means that you never run into the same layout of corridors, guards and safes. Add the option of character development: we can both improve our heroes’ skills in four categories (speed, strength, hacking and anarchy) and implement new biomechanical implants that give them additional passive abilities. We can also enhance Incognita's performance. In addition, during the campaign we unlock more characters as we free them from the corporate cells. The icing on the cake comes in the form of the levels of difficulty – in addition to the classic, imposed levels, we also have an opportunity to tinker with the settings. There's a whole slew of them, from the number of turn reps to the advantage of corporations over us in the last mission. Invisible, Inc. is a game that, in theory, is designed to provide many long hours of gameplay. In theory.

Incognita can hack most electronic devices on the map, but we how to watch out for the security measures.

Unfortunately, Klei Entertainment has created content that's not sufficiently varied. The types of missions can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand: rescue a hostage, loot a safe, steal a pass from an important person, get access to new weapons, break into a lab or steal a list of goals. And although each of them takes place in a location with a different layout of corridors, the process can become boring. What's more, it's not the only defect of Invisible, Inc. – sometimes the mechanisms of procedural generation get awry and we can stumble upon a guard carefully securing a small room with a single camera. Only after two dozen rounds, when the position of the player is located by safety systems, the guard’s attention is focused on anything other than the room.

The audiovisual side also suffers from the lack of diversification. Although Klei Entertainment has once again provided an interesting, distinctive graphic style – this time characterized by thick lines and elongated silhouettes that give the game an extremely elegant character – it failed to fill the world it created with a plethora of unique elements. Animations are poor – for example, stunning a guard always looks the same, regardless of whether the ambush is arranged by a big guy or a petite woman. The same could be said about the audio aspect, which doesn't leave us with a memorable impression either.

When hiding in the shadows fails, we have to knock out our opponent. We must remember, though, that he won't be happy once he wakes up...

The biggest flaw of Invisible, Inc. is the poor diversification of both the levels and types of missions. However, if we choose to focus on the gameplay that requires long-term planning and strategy, these defects will cease to be relevant. The only thing that counts will be the survival of each subsequent turn. Our patience will be rewarded with great satisfaction. For Klei Entertainment, it is another production that fortifies the position of the studio at the forefront of independent developers. They've already got under their belt a survival production set in a universe taken straight from Tim Burton's movies, a two-dimensional combination of a stealth and a platformer, and now they've given us a mixture of a turn-based strategy, a roguelike and an espionage game. It’s almost frightening to imagine what’s next for the creators.